Games can be classified as either educational games or entertainment games. There are many known types of educational games. One type is the standalone educational games comprising a printed matter placed on top of a hardwired sensing pad. The game is played either with two conductor wires in series with a battery and a lamp. The player connects the word and the object with the conductor wires through the holes in the printed sheet to the hardwired sensing pad. If the selection is correct, the hardwired sensing pad completes the electrical circuit and thus the lamp is lighted up signaling the correct selection. There ar other similar types of standalone educational games with a different varieties of methods for identification of the correct selection pairs. The main disadvantage of this technique is that the amount of feedback to the player is very much limited. The signaling is in terms of simple sound and/or light. Another disadvantage is that the position of the selection has to be precise, which is difficult for players of younger age group. Another type of educational games or games is the computer video games. They are software programs played in a personal computer. The input response by the player is in terms of the keyboard or the joystick. The computer video monitor displays the questions and the signalling of the correct selections. The main disadvantage of this class of educational games is that the use of keyboard entry is not suitable and/or convinient for the younger childen, and it is less fun to play the computer game with the keyboard control. The use of a joystick to play computer video game requires precise pointing or hand control, which is again not suitable for childen of younger age group.
Harte extends the convention standalone educational game concept to a computer-assisted teaching machine using a multilayer touch-sensing apparatus in U.S. Pat. No. 4,521,199 and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,561,852. In both disclosures, a instructional sheet A (in U.S. Pat. No. 4,521,199), 1 (in U.S. Pat. No. 4,561,852) that contains multiple questions, and a plurality of specific response holes 3 (in U.S. Pat. No. 4,521,199), 4 (in U.S. Pat. No. 4,661,852) adjacent to corresponding choices. The positions of these holes coincide with discrete sensing row and column conductors of the touch pad when placed on top of it. A computer then identifies the correctness or incorrectness of the touch response on one of the specific response holes, and this information is fed back to the student or retained for testing. However, Harte's apparatus also requires precise pointing to the specific set of holes, which again is not suitable for younger childen. Also, high pressure touching is required such as with a stylus G (in U.S. Pat. No. 4,521,199), 35 (in U.S. Pat. No. 4,561,852) so that multi-layer can be pressed together to create the electrical signals. Otherwise, some layers may not come to contact with each other and thus creating erroneous results. Another disadvantage is that the Harte's touch pad requires separate complex interface box such as switching relay boxes 5, 8 (in U.S. Pat. No. 4,521,199 and the resistive terminal boxes 10, 19 (in U.S. Pat. No. 4,561,852). The multi-layer and complex interface boxes make the apparatus expensive to manufacture.
The entertainment or fun games can be divided into video games similar to video educational games or board games. Boardgames in turn can be grouped into non-electronics or electronics board games. The non-electronics board game comprising a game board, a plurality of moving game pieces, a set of rolling dice or a spinner and other board game pieces. Almost all board games are for multiple players and for entertainment only. Each player rolls the dice or spin the spinner to determine the move position. Also, each board game has a fix set of game rules. They are standalone dedicated board games using no computer interface. The electronics board games are standalone portable electronic games which a player plays with the microprocessor-based electronics. This type of board games is examplified by electronic chess game board or "Dungeons and Dragons".
The recent patent disclosure, U.S. Pat. No. 4,587,878 by Moore describes a two-layer touch tablet construction. The device comprises a pair of insulating sheets, each sheet is coated with a resistive bar at one edge, and a series of interdigitataed conductive pathways 14, 15 extending toward and away from the bar. The sheets are arranged facing each other in an orthogonal orientation. Touch position is determined through a change in resistance measurement when proper contact such as contact points 2, 3 in FIG. 3 is made between the two sheets. In order to avoid non-proper contact points such as 4, 1 in FIG. 3, insulator dots such as 6 are coated between undesired conductor intersections. This requires a large amount of insulator dots, and precision manufacturing to align these structures. Moore's device is strictly intented for digitization and does not provide separate function buttons for game functions such as those provided in a commonly known joystick device.